Finance committee  I appreciate your raising that, sir. ArtBound funded very generously WE Charity through their extraordinary philanthropic commitments, and we appreciate their long-standing support in that matter.

Finance committee  No, no. To answer your question, sir, the funds have only gone one way, where they are fundraising. Specifically, it was for a school for music in East Africa, supporting an all-girls program in Kenya. They fundraised, but no benefits went the other way, sir.

Finance committee  To the best of our knowledge, we can make that blanket statement, sir, yes.

Finance committee  I appreciate your asking that question. If I can start by clarifying, in fact it actually wasn't an administration fee; it was a program implementation fee. What I mean by that is.... Often in the charitable world, when people think of admin, they think back office or fundraising

Finance committee  Sir, it was a legal structure that had the ultimate governance embedded within WE Charity. It used the WE Charity staff and senior resources. It was a contract that was established and signed by ESDC, and, by the way, under section 22, holding the provisions on insurance for the

Finance committee  It was formally recognized in June for the very purpose; as we created this partnership with the government, it was amended in its structure—

Finance committee  —and further, it's not a company, sir. It's a non-profit, with the proper structure in place of ultimate governance, with the staff of WE Charity, so quite literally, this is an appropriate—

Finance committee  With respect—

Finance committee  Actually, with respect, sir, you're incorrect in the statement. How the structure of governance was established, it was such that the WE Charity board of directors were the members. They had the ultimate authority through the legal governance and structure in place. I say with r

Finance committee  Yes, sir. This was something where the practice was in place not to pay individuals to go on the WE Day stage, to be clear, but for auxiliary events that took place in various cities, often five or six events per time, where speakers were brought in. In any given year, a small li

Finance committee  Actually, it was two or three, typically, per city.

Finance committee  I tried to give the context—

Finance committee  Suffice it to say we respect Michelle's decision on the matter. We believe that the other board members— In fact, Michelle had one date on which she transitioned. By the way, we asked if she would transition three months later. She chose to do so immediately. We respected that.

Finance committee  With respect to—

Finance committee  The conversation with Minister Ng was an introductory conversation. There was no expectation of a grant. With Minister Chagger, the first conversation—actually, in fact none of those conversations were in relation, initially, to grants.